This Blog was created by me and for me. I dont take suggestions
and I dont really care what you have to say in regards to content
or design of this Blog. As far as individual posts go, I would
love to hear your opinions in the comment section (especially
if your opinion is radically different then mine). I try to post
often, but sometimes a week will go by where I am to busy to post
anything.

~*Words*~

Friday, April 30, 2004

Absolutely no effects?!! Dont be so Naïve

My loyal friend Noah has prompted me to inform you about the dangers of antibiotics and hormones.

He says: “you do realize that the hormones and antibiotics they give to chickens have ABSOLUTELY no effects on humans? right?”

Wrong Noah. First of all if it wasnt all about making as much money as possible and maximizing profit, antibiotics in produce wouldn’t be necessary. The antibiotics fed to chicken is often the same or nearly identical to those used in humans. Antibiotics are especially relied upon by huge factory farms, where pigs, cattle or poultry often are crowded together with no access to fresh air and pasture. Antibiotics are fed to these animals, not to treat sickness but to spur them to market weight more quickly, and to "prevent" infections in animals stressed by the crowded conditions.

70% of all antibiotics produced in the US are used for agriculture. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), now link low level antibiotic use in food animals to meat contaminated with bacteria resistant to these drugs. Rising numbers of people are becoming infected with these resistant bacteria, and are harder to treat because they respond poorly or not at all to these compromised medicines.
The fact about antibiotics is that you do not want to give them to healthy beings because we develop resistance to them. Feeding antibiotics to healthy animals is a dangerous game. Factory farms also dump millions of pounds of untreated manure into the environment each year, manure likely containing antibiotics. US Geological Survey tests of the Mississippi River, for example, found evidence of antibiotics commonly used in hog farms. This practice helps breed bacteria resistant to these drugs.

As far as growth hormones in poultry, this is illegal in the US and hasn’t been in practice since the late fifties so I wont even comment.